House of Hope CDChttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org
Helping the homelessFri, 09 Dec 2016 14:18:24 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.4ReMARKable Music Room Dedicatedhttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org/remarkable-music-room/
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 11:01:15 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=1755A room where people who are homeless can listen to music, learn instruments and practice and play together was dedicated July 16 by House of Hope Community Development Corporation in memory of a Rhode Island man who died last year while he was homeless in San Francisco.

RON TIBBETTS, band mate of the late Mark Goldstein, performs during dedication.

Mark Goldstein was 28 when he died of the physical effects of alcoholism. But his parents, Donna and Richard Goldstein, proposed creation of the music room to honor the aspects of his life that brought him and others joy.

“Today is a day of celebration,” said Donna Goldstein who taught for many years at the Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, during the half-hour-long ceremony. “Today is a day to celebrate the important and deserving people who will play and enjoy music here and reconnect with their community.”

Her husband, Dr. Richard Goldstein, a retired a mathematics professor at Providence College, said that he hoped that those who come to the music room will “experience the happiness that Mark felt when he played music.”

Named the “ReMARKable Music Room and Resource Center,” the room is located at House of Hope’s headquarters complex at 3190 Post Rd., Warwick, in a storefront that formerly was the site of the Boutique store, which sold goods made by House of Hope’s clients and closed earlier this year.

The event was attended by about 50 people, many of them the relatives and friends of Mark Goldstein and who were among 69 donors who contributed nearly $9,000 through an Internet fundraising site to establish the room and support House of Hope’s goal of ending chronic homelessness in Rhode Island.

Among the speakers was Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, who apologized for showing up in blue jeans and a golf shirt, explaining that his next stop was a beach cleanup. Avedisian noted the bittersweet nature of the event and praised the Goldsteins for their efforts to aid the homeless on behalf of their late son. He said the city and House of Hope have worked to find solutions to homelessness since the agency was established more than a quarter century ago

Ron Tibbetts, a friend of Mark Goldstein, who had played in a band with him, performed several songs, accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar while seated atop of a large sound system speaker. A member of the band, “Along Came the Flood,” Tibbetts at times had the audience singing and clapping along with him, and at others, causing them to weep. Afterwards, Tibbetts said he could feel Mark’s spirit in the same way he did when they performed together.

Mark Goldstein, born in Providence on July 2, 1986, grew up in East Greenwich and attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the Community College of Rhode. He long contended with bipolar disorder and alcoholism, even as his parents sought to provide him with psychiatric and rehabilitative services.

MARK GOLDSTEIN

The Goldsteins stayed in close touch with their son after he moved to the West Coast, living variously in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, and they said even when he became homeless, he continued to play music, and was generous to friends, sharing food and clothing with them.

Richard Goldstein said that his son, while in Rhode Island, had lived for a time in an apartment in the Apponaug section of Warwick, where the Music Room is located. During the dedication, Dr. Goldstein evoked Mark’s image.

“If you look closely, you can see him, slightly hunched over an acoustic guitar, playing intently. Or, if you look through the windows, you can see him having a laugh and a smoke with his buddies – Marlboro Reds – he is smoking half and handing the rest to a friend.”

The audience included Mark Goldstein’s brother, Robert Goldstein of Warwick; his sister, Michele Meek, of Providence; and grandparents Jerry and Rose Broman of Pembroke Pines, Florida. Donna and Richard Goldstein also traveled from Florida, where they now live in Bonita Springs.

The “ReMARKable Music Room” is decorated with a large photo-on-canvas reproduction of a black-and-white sketch Mark Goldstein drew when he was 15, entitled “Guitar Man.” The room will be shared with other House of Hope programs.

The dedication ceremony featured remarks by Laura Jaworski, interim executive director of House of Hope, and by Stephen Miller, the president of the board of directors, who also served as master of ceremonies.

Miller ended the event by asking the audience to stand for a moment of silence in “the spirit of the remarkable Mark Goldstein,” declaring afterwards: “In this space, music will be created.”

“GUITAR MAN” sketch by Mark Goldstein when he was 15, is displayed on music room wall

]]>Peer Mentors Use New Lifesaving Skills to Revive Unconscious Shelter Residenthttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org/peer-mentors-use-new-lifesaving-skills-to-revive-unconscious-shelter-resident/
Fri, 11 Dec 2015 18:10:45 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=1215House of Hope’s Peer Mentor program, a job-readiness program for homeless men and women, includes training in advanced first aid

SHORTLY AFTER 10 P.M. ON COLUMBUS DAY, 2015, Regina Perreault, a House of Hope supervisor at Harrington Hall, the big homeless shelter in Cranston, discovered one of the residents unconscious in a shower room.

As she phoned 911 to summon paramedics, Perreault also called for Kyle,* 45, another resident of the shelter, to follow her into the shower area.

“The gentleman had a bluish, gray color,” Kyle recalls, “and I turned him over to see if he was breathing. He wasn’t.”

Kyle applied two strong “rescue breaths,” but still the man didn’t respond. So Kyle began full CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). A fellow resident, Thomas, took the man’s pulse, but couldn’t feel one.

Knowing the man had a drug history, Perreault called for Lawton, 29, a resident who was lying on his bunk in the vast rows of beds at the shelter. She knew Lawton was equipped with Narcan, the drug overdose antidote.

Rushing to the shower area, Lawton got ready to administer the antidote, but the needle wasn’t working. He turned to Thomas, who also had a Narcan rescue kit. Lawton calmly plunged the needle into the man, as Kyle continued CPR. Within seconds, Lawton says, the man “came back to life.”

By the time the rescue unit arrived, the once-unconscious resident was on his feet, claiming that he was “fine.” To the contrary, Lawton told him, he had to go with the paramedics: “We brought you back from the dead.”

Program provides intensive training

HOW WAS IT THAT RESIDENTS of an overnight shelter – men who were themselves homeless and presumably at a low period in their lives – could employ sophisticated lifesaving techniques so calmly, confidently and skillfully?

It was no accident.

The men were participants in a “Peer Mentor Training Program” begun this year by House of Hope Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit agency that manages Harrington Hall and has worked more than a quarter century to find solutions to homelessness in Rhode Island.

The six-week Peer Mentor course qualifies homeless men and women for paid staff positions at House of Hope facilities such as Harrington Hall and jobs at other social service agencies. It’s a way of helping them chart a course out of homelessness.

Training up to eight participants at a time, the course provides intensive certificate-level instruction in first fid, CPR and administration of Narcan, also known as naloxone.

Other topics include social service procedures, such as protecting the confidentiality of clients, use of non-violent techniques to de-escalate arguments, understanding the challenges facing gay and transgender people and learning to maintain appropriate boundaries between clients and the people who help them.

So far, one program graduate has been hired to House of Hope’s fulltime staff at Harrington Hall and a Pawtucket winter shelter. Nine Mentors have been placed in paid internships at House of Hope and another agency that helps battered women.

“If that guy had been on a downtown sidewalk, how many people would have just walked by?”

The goal is twofold: qualifying former and current homeless people to work in paying jobs, an obvious step in finding permanent homes; and bolstering their self-esteem and confidence as they overcome the dispiriting experience of homelessness.

“All of them want to give back,” says Theresa LaPerche Nobrega, a House of Hope staffer who coordinates Peer Mentor program, saying that as the participants find their way out of homelessness, they want to help others do the same.

“It really shows their character,” she says. Looking back at the Oct. 12 incident in which Kyle, Lawton, Thomas and other Peer Mentors aided the unconscious man, she notes this might not have happened in a different setting:

“If that guy had been on a downtown sidewalk, how many people would have just walked by?”

A new approach to ending homelessness

HEADQUARTERED IN WARWICK, House of Hope owns or operates 22 sites throughout Greater Providence and oversees a range of social service programs designed to end homelessness.

The agency took over the state contract to run Harrington Hall in 2009, when the shelter was mainly a revolving door for chronically homeless men, with little being done to help them other than to provide a place to sleep on a night-to-night basis.

A former gymnasium at the Pastore Center in Cranston, the state’s historic institutional complex that includes prisons, hospitals, a traffic tribunal and offices for state agencies, Harrington Hall officially has 88 beds. But often, it houses 140 men a night, with some forced to sleep on mats on the floor.

When it took over, House of Hope began offering intensive counseling to steer shelter residents to social, health and other services to help them break the cycle of homelessness. Indeed, some long-term homeless residents have moved into stable, safe housing, with some able to pay the full rent.

Now, under a new plan developed by Jean M. Johnson, House of Hope’s executive director, a “rapid assessment and rehousing center” is being created at Harrington Hall. The goal is to reduce the need for emergency shelter beds through programs designed to quickly guide more people to permanent homes, as well as to prevent people from becoming homelessness.

The Peer Mentor Training Program is the first of the center’s vocational programs, which will use Harrington Hall’s staff functions activities, as well as the facility’s operating systems, as job training opportunities.

Since spring, the Peer Mentor program has been qualifying shelter residents for regular staff positions at Harrington Hall, such as overnight security, coordination of day programs, outreach to homeless people living on the streets and similar jobs.

Other programs are on the drawing board.

For example, Harrington Hall is undergoing a state-financed $2 million renovation, which includes installation of a commercial-scale kitchen. House of Hope will use the kitchen as job-training site, with shelter residents preparing meals for the shelter under supervision of a professional chef/ educator. The experience, in turn will help qualify them for jobs in Rhode Island’s well-regarded restaurants and related businesses.

The kitchen program got a boost when Bank of America on Nov. 10 awarded House of Hope its prestigious Neighborhood Builders grant, a $200,000 over two years, which House of Hope will use to launch the new effort.

Similarly, a community garden is envisioned for open space next to Harrington Hall. It would be tended by shelter residents and other homeless persons, growing fresh produce for the kitchen; that experience also could lead to jobs in greenhouse, landscaping and related businesses. New laundry facilities at Harrington Hall likewise will provide work experience.

Helping themselves; helping others

WILLIAM STEIN, House of Hope’s associate director for clinical services, says the Peer Mentors have an unusual capacity to work with homeless people, since they’ve experienced it themselves.

The program, Stein says, “allows homeless and formerly homeless individuals to draw on their own unique experiences to empower themselves to take on a leadership role within their community.”

“Who better to help and understand a person in need than a person who is going through the same problems?” Johnson says. “It is difficult to be homeless.

Not only do the Mentors understand the stress and hurdles of trying to survive without a home, Stein says, they are more likely to be accepted by homeless men and women who may have lost faith in institutions and service providers.

Jean Johnson, House of Hope’s executive director, agrees.

“Who better to help and understand a person in need than a person who is going through the same problems?” Johnson says. “It is difficult to be homeless. You stand in line, hoping you will get a bed; you stand in line and hope you will get a mail. You don’t know where you will be when it gets too cold or too hot or where you can find a spot to sit down when you need to rest.”

The Peer Mentor program doesn’t address all problems that contribute to homelessness, says Johnson. But it has the dual benefit of adding unique sensitivity to its staff services, while changing the outlook of those emerging from homelessness.

“It gives the people who are in this situation of homelessness some control of their lives,” Johnson says. “It gives them respect for themselves, and reminds them that they are capable of doing important and good work.”

‘All are successful in their own right’

PEER MENTOR TRAINEES receive $50 payments each week and a $150 bonus at graduation, both as incentives to attend and as a hint of the rewards of paid work. Internships likewise are paid.

Financing for the $50,000 program has come from grants from a foundation, the Carter Family Trust; and from the federal Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program, through the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.
Stein, a licensed independent clinical social worker, designed much of the program, with some topics taught by House of Hope staff, and others by outside experts, who run training sessions that lead to certification in specialized areas.

For example, The Miriam Hospital in Providence sends a representative to certify Peer Mentors in use of Narcan; Gateway Healthcare, a major behavioral health program, provides certification in mental health first aid.

Stein runs sessions in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, which involves techniques to calm potential outbreaks of trouble, for example, deescalating verbal arguments before they turn into fights.

Two 96-hour-long Peer Mentor classes have been completed so far, with a third underway. One or two more sessions are planned during the rest of the fiscal year that ends next June, meaning more than 30 men and women will have completed the program by mid-2016.

Theresa LaPerche Nobrega, the Peer Mentor coordinator, says the training provides a way for participants to chart the direction of their lives.
“We are not changing people,” she says. “We are giving them a vehicle to change. They all want a vehicle to be able to get out of homelessness. And they are all successful in their own right.”

For Peer Mentors, personal impacts

KYLE, ONE OF THE MEN who rushed to the rescue of the unconscious man on Columbus Day, is completing a paid internship at Harrington Hall.
“He’s been such a huge asset to the staff, says Theresa LaPerche Nobrega. “They rave about his help.”

Lawton, another Mentor who helped revive the man, says he began volunteering at Harrington Hall in July after his third day at the shelter. Joining the Peer Mentor program provided new insight into how others experience homelessness.

“It really opened my eyes,” Lawton says, “and it teaches you that there is a lot going on with people and not to be judgmental.”

Lawton, who is waiting for an internship, founded a book group at Harrington Hall, and now is working a staff member to develop a literacy workshop, after realizing that some people at the shelter can’t read or read well.

The assistance that Lawton, Kyle and Thomas provided the unconscious man (who was asked to seek substance abuse help as a condition of returning to the shelter) was widely appreciated by other residents.

One evening, Lawton found 15 books on his bunk, a tribute from other residents who knew he was creating a library for his book club. Some residents called him a “celebrity,” although the label made him uncomfortable.

Lawton looks on the assistance that he and other Peer Mentors provided the man as a logical extension of the training they received in program.

“I did what needed to be done, and I had the resources to save him,” Lawton says. “I don’t need someone to pat me on the back.”

House of Hope has been awarded the prestigious “Neighborhood Builders” grant by Bank of America, a $200,000 contribution over two years that will jumpstart a food services job-training program at House of Hope’s Harrington Hall shelter in Cranston.

“We’re very grateful for all the work that House of Hope does, and you truly help those in tremendous need,” said Bill Hatfield, Rhode Island Market President for Bank of America, in presenting the grant at a Providence ceremony on Nov. 10.

“You’ve always been there for us,” said Jean M. Johnson, House of Hope’s executive director, saying Bank for America “has been part of our organization for 26 years, with grants year after year, with board members, with volunteers supporting our events.’’

The award comes as House of Hope is developing a vocational training program for homeless men and women, which is to be centered around the refurbished kitchen and dining areas at Harrington Hall, which is undergoing extensive renovation by the state.

Under the plan, shelter residents and other homeless people will operate the kitchen under the direction of a professional chef-educator, preparing meals for the 140 men who stay at the shelter. The training and work experience, in turn, will help participants gain jobs in Rhode Island’s nationally-recognized restaurants and related food services businesses.

A potential second phase would be a commercial cafeteria serving the Pastore center, which currently has no central restaurant for the hundreds of people who work at and visit various state agencies housed on the sprawling complex in Cranston.

New Role for Harrington Hall

HARRINGTON HALL

In discussing the proposed program during the awards ceremony, Johnson noted the example set by Amos House’s pioneering food services initiative, which includes its Friendship Café, along with a catering service, which supplied food for the grant event.

“The funding we are receiving from Bank of America today is going to help launch our employment program at Harrington Hall – a program that we are also kind of modeling after Amos House,” she said.

Job training is a central theme of House of Hope’s overall plan to transform Harrington Hall from serving only as an revolving door shelter – to which homeless men return night after night – by creating a sophisticated “rapid assessment and rehousing center,” to promote permanent housing solutions.

Since it took on the role of managing Harrington Hall for the state in 2009, House of Hope has been providing first-ever programs to help shelter residents obtain medical and other services that can lead to jobs and stable housing.

Now, as the state is renovating the century-old former gymnasium, House of Hope will be able to provide new programs that will accelerate the effort to break the cycle of homelessness, especially for those who have been without homes for years.

A Bank’s Helping Hand

Bank of America formally awarded the grant at a late-afternoon program at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Chase Center Auditorium, attended by 160 bank officials and members of social service organizations, including those that received awards earlier.

The “Neighborhood Builders” program is a major grant award by the bank, and it’s gone to 13 Rhode Island non-profits since 2007, an investment totaling $2.6 million, said Hatfield, the bank executive. Nationally, the Neighborhood Builder program has helped more than 800 nonprofits.

Hatfield said that the Neighborhood Builders program is “one of the largest philanthropic programs of its kind in the country,” and not only provides a $200,000 cash infusion, but leadership training for winning organizations. The “leadership development” component culminates with a national conference in Washington, DC for all agencies that won the award, attended by their chief executives and their designated “emerging” leaders.

Hatfield noted House of Hope Community Development Corporation’s “humble beginnings” in 1989, in which a Warwick church’s social service committee and others in the community opened a “shelter unlike any other,” a two-family shelter in a former school.

“Since the start, they’ve grown into a highly effective, outcome-oriented organization,” he said. Currently, House of Hope owns or operates 22 sites throughout Greater Providence that provide housing and a range of social services.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “today there are over 4,000 people in Rhode Island that are homeless. And House of Hope has worked very hard to give so many of our homeless hope and the stability of a place to call home.”

“It all starts there: with a stable home,” the bank official noted.

A Group Effort

Johnson, in accepting the award, noted House of Hope’s debt to colleagues in other nonprofit agencies, who have encouraged and advised her organization. She noted that some of them were present in the auditorium.

“I see Joe and Eileen and Sharon in the background,” she said, meaning Joe Garlick, executive director of NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley; Eileen Hayes of Amos House; and Sharon Conard-Wells of West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation. She also noted Frank Shea, former director of Olneyville Housing Corporation.

“It’s always been my privilege to work with such wonderful people in the state of Rhode Island – and to learn from them over 26 years, and to be encouraged by them to continue to do the work that we do,” Johnson said.

Johnson also praised the longtime support of Mayor Scott Avedisian of Warwick, where House of Hope has its headquarters; Avedisian attended the ceremony.

“Scott has been a wonderful champion for us and for the homeless and all people in need in this state, not just in the city of Warwick, and we are very lucky to be housed in that community with you.”

“We’ve also had tremendous, wonderful, dedicated staff from day one until now,” Johnson continued. “People who have worked so hard and have always had the mission of ending homelessness in their hearts and have worked well above and beyond – almost to their detriment sometimes.”

The House of Hope board of directors has provided solid backing over the years, she said, noting the board “has allowed me to take risks,” including the major step of assuming management of Harrington Hall, the state’s largest homeless shelter.

“They have supported every step that we’ve taken,” Johnson said. “And we’ve gone from being one of the smallest organizations in the state doing good work, to now one of the largest, hopefully continuing to do really good work.”

House of Hope’s work, she said, has several elements:

Providing high-quality housing for formerly homeless people, often by rehabilitating buildings that once were neighborhood eyesores.

Taking over shelters and programs that were failing under previous management, most recently ACCESS RI in the Blackstone Valley, which provides shelters, a day center and street outreach.

Supportive services, ensuring that formerly homeless individuals and families are able to remain in their new homes.

“Words of Encouragement”

Johnson joked that she had attended previous Bank of America award events at which other agencies had received the Neighborhood Builders grants, thinking to herself: “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” But she was determined to keep trying.

“I knew if I hung in there long enough,” she laughed, “and we continued to do the good work that we did, we could show the bank we were a Neighborhood Builder, too.”

Hatfield said Johnson’s comments were worth noting by leaders of other agencies.

“Those are words of encouragement for those of you who would very much like to receive this award: Keep trying,” Hatfield said. “Just keep coming at us. It is so important that you do. And you will all win. You will all win. And most importantly, our community will win.”

]]>Check back soon!http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/check-back-soon/
Thu, 04 Jun 2015 17:21:08 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=1005Our website is updated often with up to date information. Check back soon for information on upcoming projects and events!
]]>Construction Underwayhttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org/construction-underway/
Sat, 18 Apr 2015 19:30:42 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=755We are proud to announce that construction is underway Harrington Hall!

]]>A Big Thankshttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org/a-big-thanks/
Sat, 18 Apr 2015 19:15:03 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=747A special shout out to our friends at W.B.Mason for donating soda and coffee!
]]>Manny’s Storyhttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org/mannys-story/
Wed, 01 Apr 2015 04:39:28 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=699A popular bartender in Providence for over 20 years, Manny Gomes’ life was changed when a car crash left his leg badly damaged. During recovery, he took oxycodone for the pain and turned to heroin when his prescriptions ran out. A quick downward spiral left Manny living on the streets until one cold night in 2005. Sleeping in a dumpster, Manny woke to the rumbling sound of his dumpster being emptied into a refuse truck. Manny called for help as the truck broke bones and puncture a lung.

After a three month stay in the hospital, Manny returned to the streets until a friend told him about House of Hope. After an interview with the executive director, Jean Johnson, Manny was offered an apartment at the Fran Conway House, on of House of Hope’s affordable housing buildings, and was able to qualify for disability and enroll in methadone treatment.

Manny has since moved into permanent housing and keeps busy doing landscaping and helping neighbors. He does so much for his community that he has become known as the Mayor of Apponaug. Manny also serves on the Board of Directors for House of Hope.

]]>Billboard!http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/billboard/
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:40:16 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=540House of Hope made it big! With the generous support of Cimini & Company, along with a donation from Lamar, our first billboards showing our new logo could see alongside Route 10 and Park Avenue.
]]>25th Anniversaryhttp://thehouseofhopecdc.org/25th-anniversary/
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:37:44 +0000http://thehouseofhopecdc.org/?p=534House of Hope celebrated 25 years of helping our homeless with honorary chair Governor Noel on May 15th, 2014. More than 200 friends and supporters both old and new helped to celebrate our successes and our future while raising more than $65,000 for HOH to continue its mission to end homelessness in RI.
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